Research

Cryo-electron tomography of cells and viruses

Everything in life is dynamic.

Structural plasticity and movement play fundamental roles in life, from the level of whole organisms down to cells, viruses and individual molecules. The Schur group uses advanced cryo-electron microscopy and image processing methods to study the structure and function of proteins and complexes in their native and dynamic environment, where proteins and their structure can be in a continuous flux.

We are using cell biology and advanced correlative light and cryo-electron microscopy methods to answer fundamental questions in the organization and structure of the actin cytoskeleton, the key player in the ability of cells to move . If you want to know more about why and how we do it click here

Understanding virus structure is crucial in order to decipher important features of the viral lifecycle as well as to open up new avenues to interfere with virus assembly. For decades viruses have been useful tools to develop new methods in electron microscopy. To learn more about our efforts to elucidate the structure of different viruses and how they help us to take cryo-ET and subtomogram averaging to the next level click here.Follow this link, to read more about the cryo-electron microscopy methods that we are using.

In case you want to know more about the projects in the lab, you can also look up our publications or drop us an email at florian.schur@ist.ac.at